The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1887-10-21
TEMPERANCE READING.
ARROGANCE OF THE SALOON.

ARROGANCE OF THE SALOON.
The Influence Welded by the Rum Power
in Our Larger Cities-An Almost Uni
yersai Disregard of Law.
The gravest problem III municipal
government is to secure honest and
economical administration. Our great
and rapidly growing cities are obliged
to spend very large sums for public inn
provements of various kinds; and
wherever public money is TO be spent,
there we may be sure we viii find men
anxious to have hand in the business.
For somehow there has grown up
false code of honesty in the public
mind; the thief who steals outright
from private citizen is condemned
and punished, while he who steals from
the treasury through cunning con-
tracts, sharp practice in bidding, and
other schemes unfortunately far too
familiar, suffers no loss of social OF
business standing.
The opportunitiespf many municipal
office-holders to obtain profit out of
office-hold;ng has led dishonest and
disreputable men to see9 such positions
with eagerness; and the saloon has
been the most potent influence by
which they could compass their wishes.
The result has been that there is not
one of the larger cities of the land but
has become the victim of an organized
scheme of plumber. The erection of
public buildings, the paving of streets,
and every other municipal improve
ment has been made to cost far more
than it would had it been done for a
private individual; and our total munic-
ipal debt is many millions greater than
it would otherwise be, on account of
these wholesale stealings.
1t has become common for men who
are VIGOROUSLY corrupt to seek and
obtain office in our great cities. They
do not appeal to the honest, respect
able classes for their support, they
know that this would be unavailing.
But they turn to the saloons, and
through their means control the ig-
norant and degraded, and the distinc-
lively vicious classes of the community
Glasses whose numerical strength
would not be so great were it not for
the saloons themselves. Rum is the
parent of poverty. ignorance, vice and
degradation; and where the saloon
f1ourishes most, there we find the
greatest number of these dangerous
classes.
The Rum Power has not been slow
to recognize the power it thus yields
in politics. The men who are rivals
for the saloon support have courted
and coddled the Rum Power to obtain
place, until it has become fully cog
INFANT that it can control municipal
politics. And it has not been slow to
make he most of this advantage No
man, as rule, who is known to be an
active o ponent of the Rum Power
can obtain municipal office of any
kind. If he can not be defeated for
nomination in the caucuses, he is over
thrown at the polls. Hence men who
in their hearts resent the tyranny are
nevertheless compel ed by their own
political ambition. to keep SILENT and
even if they do not do the bidding of
the Rum Power will not actively OPP
pose it, knowing that the knell of their
aspirations will be struck by the first
show of opposition on their own part.
This has gone on until the dangers
of this growing supremacy of the Rum
Power has become clearly apparent
The saloonists and their allies have so
centralized their power. and are so
conscious of their strength. that in
many of our cities they bid defiance to
all law, wherever it may interfere with
their schemes of profit and plumber.
They are willing that all laws shall be
strictly enforced except those which
concern themselves. They regard
themselves as privileged class-as
above and beyond all law There is
not liquor law upon the statute books
OF any, State or any city that they will
not disregard. They feel secure IN
their law breaking, because they know
the power they WELD in politics. The 1
official who does enforce the law
against them will be driven from pow
er at the next election. They feel
themselves stronger than the senti-
ment in favor of law or order, and
hence ignore whatever laws they may
choose with impunity. They even
have abrogated the Fourth Command
ment, because Sunday is one of the
best DAYS in the whole week wherein
to sell Rum.
So universal is this disregard of law
by the Rum Power, so fully is it rec
ognized, that it is even made an argu-
ment against the enactment of re-
strictive laws. The most oft-reiterated
plea against restrictive laws is: "Oh,
you can't enforce the law!' Things
have come to a sad pass, indeed. in
this land, when a class of the COM
munity has become so defiant that citi-
zens give its lawlessness as a reason
for the non-enactment of iegislation!
The Rum Power is one Of the two
parties responsible for this state of
things. The other is the people them
selves. They have been playing the
role of towards in this struggle, and
have allowed the internal tyranny of
the Rum Power full swing. 1t is time
for an awakening, and we are glad to
see the signs of its coming The Rum
Power has gotten too arrogant. 1t
has driven things with two high
hand. A reaction is setting in rapidly
against the domination of the saloon
in politics. Toledo Blade.